On sports media.

Gardner Skates Into Familiar Territory

The Cubs and the Blackhawks have two traits in common. They both change their broadcast teams about as often as they win championships.

The Hawks basically have had two voices in the last 40 years: Lloyd Pettit and Pat Foley. Too bad the same can't be said of their record with coaches.

Foley started his 18th year with the Hawks on Saturday. But for the first time in 14 years, he had to make an adjustment.

Gone is Foley's longtime sidekick Dale Tallon, who has joined the Hawks' front office. In is former Hawk Bill Gardner.

For Foley, the only difference between the two analysts is on the golf course. Tallon is a golf pro; Gardner is not.

"This will be the first time Pat will have to give his partner strokes," Gardner says.

"Oh, no, I'm not," Foley replies.

If the pair sound like they know each other well, it's because they do. They both broke in with the Hawks in the early 1980s and have been close friends ever since.

That's why the change in the booth should be rather seamless for Hawks fans. Listening to them on opening night Saturday on WMAQ-AM 670, it sounded as if Foley and Gardner had been together for years. Their first televised game will be Tuesday night at Dallas on Fox Sports Chicago.

Gardner didn't miss a beat in taking over for the popular Tallon, enjoying an easy banter with Foley. He was appropriately down on the Hawks for their sluggish play in the first period, and then almost called the scenario on the game-winning goal.

"The guy I had been working with was a good friend of mine," Foley says. "That's one of the things the fans liked. There won't be any gap with Billy. I've got the same kind of relationship with him."

It was Foley who encouraged Gardner take up broadcasting after the completion of his hockey career in 1989. Gardner landed a job as the studio analyst at SportsVision and has spent the last two years as the color analyst for Hartford and then Carolina.

Gardner thought he would be in Carolina again this year before the Hawks' opening came up in September. Even then, he didn't know if it would happen because he was under contract with the Hurricanes.

"I had two years left," says Gardner, who never sold his house here. "But they knew this was an opportunity to fulfill my dream. They realized where my heart lay."

Foley says it's important for a former Hawk to have the analyst job. Gardner was a workmanlike center for the Hawks, scoring a career-high 27 goals in 1983-84.

Gardner believes he knows what Hawks fans want in an analyst--frankness and honesty. Unbeknownst to Foley, Gardner learned his first lesson in broadcasting from him.

In 1983, the Hawks were waiting in the Detroit airport when Foley called him over. He asked if Gardner was upset because he hadn't spoken to Foley in a few days.

"I said, `No,' " Gardner says. "He said he had criticized me for not going after a puck and he thought my wife had heard it. I said, `Pat, you were right. You were telling the truth.'

"I learned that in this business, you have to tell the truth. This is not like Carolina, where they don't know hockey. If you're lying or sugar-coating in Chicago, you're out of here."

Given the Hawks' track record, Foley and Gardner should be together for a long time. Whether they will be around to see a Stanley Cup is another story.

The weekend wrapup: Good move by CBS in switching from New England's blowout of Kansas City to the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh thriller.

- Bad move by ABC for not bringing the Notre Dame-Arizona State game back to this market once power was restored Saturday in Tempe. ABC wouldn't have made the same decision if it involved an Ohio State game going back to Columbus. Irish fans want their team, especially when they are winning. Bet this wouldn't have happened with NBC doing the game.

- Too bad the power didn't go off Sunday in Sun Devil Stadium. Ray Bentley and Ron Pitts tried, but there was no way to breathe energy into that Bears fiasco. Bet Pat Summerall and John Madden just can't wait to call the Bears' game Sunday against Dallas.

- Memo to NBC from TV remote owners: Please follow Fox Sports' lead and use the score graphic. NBC has resisted because it doesn't like the look. In this day and age of sports fans watching three events at one time, the score graphic is appreciated--and expected.

- CBS' "NFL Today" has made a good addition in adding former NFL exec Mike Lombardi as its insider. He had a nice scoop on the AFC considering realignment next year. . . . NBC's Jim Gray scored a nice piece of spontaneous television Friday by informing a surprised George Steinbrenner that the Boss had been fined for rapping the umpires.

- And finally, how many sleepless nights are the Fox Sports executives having over the prospect of a Cleveland-San Diego World Series? Fox just might rerun the best of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa instead.